The Darkest Secret

by Gena Showalter

Page 17

 

  That was al .

  Another complication sprouted. If the warrior she craved Another complication sprouted. If the warrior she craved was Amun, he wouldn’t want her when he discovered the truth about her. The fact that he’d kissed her meant he hadn’t realized who she was and what she’d done to his friend, Baden. When he did, he would want to kil her, not pleasure her.

  But he knew you were a Hunter. You told him. Stil . Easier to forgive a run-of-the-mil Hunter, she thought, than the Hunter who had helped behead his friend—and planned to do the same to al the others.

  Footsteps suddenly resounded. Haidee swung around, facing the cel door. She tensed, waiting, dreading. A few seconds later, the blond, blue-eyed keeper of Defeat rounded the corner and approached her prison. Bile burned a path up her throat. His pretty features were devoid of emotion, but his skin was pale, the tracery of his veins evident.

  Though her heartbeat sped up, thumping erratical y, she didn’t back away, wouldn’t act the coward.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked, just to taunt him. “Have a tummy ache?”

  Both of his sandy brows arched into his hairline, his eyes glittering dangerously. His gaze perused her from top to bottom, purposely lingering at her breasts, between her legs. “I’m feeling like I can do anything I want with you. ”

  Calmly yet brutal y uttered, his threat clear. “Anything. ”

  That wasn’t the answer she’d expected, and she scowled at him. But then, she should have known he wouldn’t simply endure her snide remarks. He always had to one-up her.

  So. Enough pleasantries.

  “Where’s the warrior?” she demanded. “The one I was with?”

  “You mean Amun, keeper of the demon of Secrets?” So calm, so certain. “Or your boyfriend?”

  Secrets, he’d said. Just as she’d suspected. The confirmation explained so much. The knots in her stomach twisted into themselves, sharpening further. Stil , she wouldn’t confirm or deny what she knew.

  “Maybe that’s what you want me to believe. That he’s masquerading as a Hunter, while in reality, he’s real y your friend. ” The words croaked from her. “Or maybe you just want me to hate my own boyfriend. Maybe you want me to hurt him and afterward, you’l taunt me, laugh at me. ”

  “Now why would I want that, huh? If he’s my friend, demon-possessed like me, yet I told you he wasn’t, that he was your man, you would do your best to watch over him. And I would want my friend watched over, wouldn’t I?” Strider propped his shoulder against the bar, and though his head was turned, his hard gaze remained fixed on her. “But if he isn’t, if he is your boyfriend, why would I give the pleasure of kil ing him to you, even for a joke?”

  Her chin lifted a notch, her stubborn core refusing to be cowed. Despite his sound reasoning. “Why would you admit he was your friend, then? Thereby placing him in danger?”

  “So I’ve admitted he’s Amun, have I?”

  No, he hadn’t. He’d only questioned her thoughts on the matter, probably trying to confuse her. “I don’t care who he is. ” Either way, he belonged to her. That was a fact she couldn’t argue, even with herself. “I just want to see him, make sure he’s okay. ”

  “Want, want, want. ” He tapped a finger against his chin.

  “Who said anything about giving you what you want?”

  She popped her jaw, stil refusing to show him emotion.

  “Why are you here, Defeat?”

  “We’l get to that in a minute. First, I have some questions for you. ”

  “And I have every intention of answering them,” she said, sugar sweet.

  “You wil if you want to see your…man again. ” The last was gritted, as if the prospect bothered him.

  “You just told me I wouldn’t get what I wanted. ”

  “No, I didn’t. Think back. I asked you who said you would. ”

  True. Bastard. But would he honor his word? The Lords of the Underworld were not known as givers in her world.

  “After you just taunted me with never seeing him again, you expect me to believe you’l escort me back to his room if I give you answers you won’t believe anyway?” Or bring Amun here, she thought, but didn’t say the words aloud. No reason to put ideas into his head if they weren’t already there.

  He shrugged. “You’re right. I was merely taunting you. Can you blame me, though? You bring out the worst in me, and I struck back. ”

  She wanted to yel at him to continue but remained silent, waiting.

  “So,” he prodded. “We gonna do this? Answers in exchange for a little sightseeing?”

  “Yes,” she gritted out. She had no other recourse. He might be lying, but she was wil ing to risk Hunter secrets on the hope that he’d fol ow through. And that’s what he would demand, she thought. Secrets.

  “Let’s hammer out a few details before I start spewing info. When wil you take me to him? A few years from now?” She wouldn’t put such a trick past him.

  A muscle ticked below his eye. “I’l take you immediately fol owing our conversation. ”

  “As if you’l keep your word,” she said, raising her chin another notch. She might be wil ing to risk everything, but that didn’t mean she would be stupid about it. The terms needed to be laid out flat, ironed and starched. Just in case. To do that, she would have to provoke him. Some things had to be offered without her prompting.

  His eyes narrowed to tiny slits, the top and bottom lashes catching and twining. “Chal enge me, then.

  Chal enge me to keep it. ”

  Like that. Had she chal enged him on her own, he would have punished her. “Is he even alive?” Even asking, she wanted to cry. You can live without him, she reminded herself. She just didn’t want to.

  Oh, God. He already meant that much to her? Despite who and what he might be? Despite how he would hate her?

  “Yes,” Defeat said. “He is. Though his condition has worsened. ”

  Her heart thumped against her ribs. “How many questions?

  There has to be a limit. ”

  He gave another negligent shrug. “Five. And your answers had better be truthful. ”

  How wil you know if they are or aren’t? she almost asked, just to taunt him as he’d taunted her, but she didn’t. The outcome of this was too important. “Al right. I—I chal enge you to take me to see Micah—Amun—after I answer five questions honestly. ” If he punished her for the chal enge, anyway, it would be no more than she deserved for al owing him to trick her.

  Defeat’s pupils gobbled up his irises as he jerked his head once in a stiff nod. “I accept. ” His hands fisted. “Satisfied?”

  She’d seen that reaction before, recognized it as what he’d claimed. Acceptance. “I’m as satisfied as I can be in a place like this. ”

  Those pupils continued to grow, as if she’d said something provocative. And maybe she had—a virile man would see her words as an invitation to satisfy her physical y, and this man was more virile and invitation-happy than most—but it had been unintentional. She wasn’t attracted to Defeat. He was beautiful, yes, but he lacked Amun’s intensity. She also wanted to throw up in her mouth a little every time she looked at him.

  “What’s your first question?” she demanded.

  He didn’t hesitate. “What the hel are you?”

  She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “I’m human. ”

  Fast as lightning, he struck out, his fist pounding into the bar and rattling the very foundation of the cel .

  “Already you’re lying. You can materialize weapons out of thin air.

  That’s not something humans can do. ”

  She gave no reaction to his fury. “If I can, why haven’t I produced one since being here? And I promise you, I would have sliced your throat from end to end if I’d had even the slightest opportunity during our trek. ”

  Now a muscle ticked in his jaw, but at least he didn’t strike
out again. “An easy boast, almost believable. Maybe you just wanted a ticket into this fortress. ”

  “To do what? Expedite my torture?”

  “You were Bait once. Maybe you’re meant to be Bait again. ”

  “Then you were an idiot to bring me here,” she lashed out.

  His nostrils flared with the force of his renewed fury, but he said nothing else.

  “This is getting us nowhere,” she said, as calmly as she was able. “The weapons didn’t simply materialize when we were in the jungle. I hid them from you until I found the opportunity to use them. ” And that was the God’s honest truth. “That, and you’re kind of a dumbass. ”

  He exhaled, the breath seeming to drain his fury. “Wel , that’s an improvement over stupid and idiot. ”

  Gentle, amused teasing. From him. Shocking. Or was he trying to throw her off balance? “I answered.

  Honestly. So, second question. ”

  The gentleness faded, only a single thread of the amusement remaining. “If you’re human, how are you alive?

  I watched you die. Which is a nice way of saying I fucking murdered you!”

  “I’ve been reanimated. ” She didn’t mention how or how many times. He hadn’t asked. “That’s two.

  Next. ”

  He shook his head. “Not done with that one yet. If you’ve been reanimated, and I’m guessing that’s just a fancy way of saying you were brought back to life, a god aided you.

  Only a god has the power to reanimate a body after a beheading. And even then, I’m not sure it’s possible. ”

  Silence enveloped them. He stared at her pointedly. She stared back.

  “Wel ?” he demanded, spreading his arms as if he were the last sane man in the universe.

  “Wel , what? You didn’t ask a question. ”

  The muscle in his jaw started ticking again. “Who aided you?”

  Aided was not the word she would have chosen. Cursed, maybe. “A creature very much like you. I think. I didn’t see it, only know I had a reaction to it the first and only time it touched me. ” And that’s al she would say on the matter.